USC offensive tackle Winston Justice is expected to turn pro but won’t make an official announcement until the end of the week while his teammate, wide receiver Steve Smith, is expected to announce today he is returning for his senior season.

Tailback LenDale White is also expected to make himself available for the draft after skipping a meeting with USC coach Pete Carroll on Monday.

The status of those three players, along with junior safety Darnell Bing, are the top priority for Carroll this week as he looks toward next year.

Justice met for an hour with Carroll on Monday morning and Carroll tried his best to convince the junior lineman to return for another year. However, it appears Justice will enter his name in the NFL draft. He is projected as going somewhere between the 10th-and-20th pick of the first round.

“I’ll make an announcement around the end of the week,” Justice said.

Smith said Monday he would announce his intentions today, but told Carroll he would return, according to sources.

“I talked to Steve today and I don’t think he’s going to go,” said former USC wide receiver Mike Williams. “A lot of guys his size are going in the draft. He could benefit from another year.”

Meanwhile, tailback Reggie Bush said he was not sure when he would make his announcement to turn pro. Bush is currently trying to pick an agent and has re-opened the process after narrowing the field to three finalists.

— Scott Wolf

Bout on shaky ground

The much-discussed middleweight title fight between Jermain Taylor and Winky Wright is on shaky ground after negotiations appeared to have broken down Monday.

Lou DiBella, Taylor’s promoter, made an offer last week that would have paid Wright about $3 million for a live fight on HBO. Taylor would have received around $4 million.

On Monday, Wright’s team asked for a 50-50 split, and DiBella responded by saying the fight probably won’t happen.

“We are not going to be bullied by Winky Wright’s people,” DiBella said.

Taylor (25-0) beat Bernard Hopkins in July to win the middleweight championship, then beat him again last month. After that first title defense, Taylor’s team said it wanted his next fight to be in his home state of Arkansas he’s fought before at North Little Rock’s Alltel Arena.

But the WBC ordered Taylor to make his next defense against Wright (50-3). Had DiBella’s offer from last week been accepted, the fight would have probably been held in Memphis, Tenn.

UT celebration set

Texas will honor its national championship football team with a celebration Sunday at Royal-Memorial Stadium.

Texas won its first outright national title since 1969 with the a 41-38 Rose Bowl victory over top-ranked Southern California.

On Monday, state Rep. Corbin Van Arsdale asked the school to retire quarterback Vince Young’s No. 10 jersey. Young, 30-2 as a starter, scored three touchdowns against USC, including the game-winner with 19 seconds left.

Ski chief upset

The head of U.S. skiing on Monday called Bode Miller’s comments about drinking and racing “unacceptable” and “irresponsible,” and he plans to meet with the champion skier.

Bill Marolt, the president and chief executive of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, released a statement in response to the profile of Miller broadcast on CBS’ “60 Minutes” on Sunday night.

He said Miller’s remarks “relative to alcohol use in conjunction with competition are unacceptable within the values expected of U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association athletes.”

Marolt, who is based in Park City, Utah, is making an unscheduled trip to this week’s World Cup races in Switzerland to speak to Miller to “work with him to both recognize the seriousness of his comments and to reach a positive outcome.”

Ruling on its way

A New York Supreme Court judge will not decide until at least today whether to grant embattled U.S. skeleton coach Tim Nardiello’s request to have his suspension temporarily overturned, a delay that hurts his chance of joining the national team at a World Cup race this weekend.

Essex County Supreme Court Judge James Dawson listened to 75 minutes of arguments in open court on Monday, and said he needed time before making a decision, which attorneys said was likely to come by e-mail and fax on Tuesday.

InterLiga at HDC

Guadalajara stands two games from a return trip to Copa Libertadores, South America’s club soccer championship, and needs only a tie and maybe less tonight against Necaxa at Home Depot Center to reach an InterLiga final.

Guadalajara, which reached the Copa Libertadores semifinals last summer, is atop Group B after two rounds of InterLiga play in Texas. Doubleheaders tonight and Wednesday at HDC will determine four finalists, and Sunday’s games at HDC will decide Mexico’s final two entrants in the South American championship.

— Scott French

Fulham goalkeeper Anthony Warner plans to join Trinidad and Tobago’s national soccer team. Warner, who was born in England, agreed to join the Soca Warriors after meeting Sunday in London with officials from the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation, T&TFF spokesman Shaun Fuentes said Monday. Warner said he last visited Trinidad in 1995 and did not yet have a Trinidad passport, but that his father, Clyde, was born in the country and emigrated to Britain 44 years ago.

Briefly

New York City Marathon officials feel they have the best thing going for them in their bid to host the U.S. men’s Olympic trials: New York itself. The New York Road Runners submitted a plan to U.S. Track and Field on Monday, outlining their efforts to host the marathon trials on Nov. 2, 2007, two days before the New York City Marathon.

Former Dallas Cowboys defensive back Dwayne Goodrich was sentenced Monday to five more years in prison for three counts of failure to stop and render aid in the 2003 hit-and-run deaths of two good Samaritans.

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